East Natomas Education Complex - what could have been

This is the current state of the East Natomas Education Complex (ENEC).  Pretty sad, especially when you consider what could have been.

Contracts/Groundbreakings/Completions - June 2008
McCarthy, LPA start design-build work on Sacramento educational complex McCarthy Building Cos. and LPA Inc. recently broke ground on the long-anticipated East Natomas Education Complex in Sacramento. The complex is the largest design-build public school project being constructed under a new state law. McCarthy and LPA Inc. is the contractor/architect partnership in this design-build effort. The flagship 293,450-sq-ft 7-12 grade campus is being built under Assembly Bill 1402, which authorizes school districts to utilize a design-build procurement process to deliver school projects greater than $10 million. The $150 million educational complex will include a 1,900-student high school, a 1,100-student junior high school, sports facilities and a performing arts facility that is expected to set standards for energy efficiency in California. The school is scheduled to open in the fall of 2010. The schools’ buildings will be constructed primarily from concrete and steel rather than wood products to expand the facilities’ life expectancy from 50 years to 100 years. The school will also incorporate a number of important green initiatives, including east-west building orientation to maximize energy efficiency; solar tubes, skylights and high-efficiency HVAC units to reduce daytime energy demand; and waterless urinals and occupant sensors will reduce potable water use. Part of the Grant Joint Union High School District, the project will be the largest design/build project completed in the California public school system under the assembly bill. The complex will be built in two phases, with the junior high scheduled to open in August 2009 and the high school a year later. Yes, instead of a new junior high/high school complex that would currently be serving students in the North Natomas area, there is an empty shell.  Twin Rivers spent $60,000,000 to stop this project while acknowledging that space for high school students will be needed in the next 10 years.  Twin Rivers claims that the project was not funded while ignoring the passage of Measure G that included building ENEC.  There are homes near ENEC - home with people living in them.  The housing market would have put off the opening for one year but if Twin Rivers had continued with ENEC's construction, they would have students in this school now.  I was on the Grant board when we built Norwood Junior High.  Norwood was supposed to open with 350 students - 650 showed up the first day.  Build a school and it is amazing how many people "remember" what district they live in so they can attend that school.  ENEC would have been the same.  Instead there are more portables than ever at Rio Linda and Grant High Schools and the school promised the residents of North Natomas sits decaying in a field.